Informal music learning, pioneered by Green (2002, 2006, 2017), presents an alternative approach that integrates students’ interests in popular music, bridging the informal and traditional styles of Western music education in schools. We conducted a scoping review adhering to the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines to investigate informal music learning. Our scoping review encompasses 28 empirical, peer-reviewed articles published from 2006 to 2023. First, we analyse the diverse contexts, methodologies and geographic locations in which informal music learning has been investigated. Second, we explore how different stakeholders perceive and engage with informal music learning in various educational settings. Lastly, we summarise the implications derived from the analysed studies on informal music learning. Our findings reveal that across various educational contexts, informal music learning has consistently demonstrated its positive impact in motivating students. We also find that researchers have extended their investigations from programme reform to exploring pupil and teacher’s musical identities. Recommendations for future research include exploring informal music learning in ensembles and elementary music classrooms and employing quantitative or mixed methods to assess its effectiveness and impact.

This research explored the impact of informal learning (IL) in primary music initial teacher training. A small group of undergraduate student teachers had an opportunity to learn about and facilitate an IL approach. Data were collected from interviews, participant reflective logs and researcher reflections. The findings show that perceived benefits included freedom for serendipity, pupil autonomy and aural learning; perceived tensions included student teacher anxiety and a lack of teacher control. The researchers propose two aspects for consideration: first, that language associated with IL has social meaning that must be updated; second, that while direct instruction remains at the heart of primary teacher education, IL can continue to be justified despite the current emphasis on direct explicit teaching.

This article provides a brief introduction to a research program which has been under way since 2007 to examine, using data from a large-sample panel survey, whether jobs in Australia are becoming more or less skilful over time. It redefines the debate on deskilling which ran through the 1970s and 1980s by expanding the focus beyond simple job quality to issues of current policy interest, notably the contribution of skill to innovation and productivity. To map this kind of dynamism it is necessary to use a metric capable of capturing change over short periods. This is achieved by adding a third dimension, skill-intensity, to Spenner’s classic definition of skill in terms of two loosely related constructs, worker autonomy/control and substantive job complexity. Data drawn from the first eight waves of HILDA are analysed to demonstrate that this metric is capable of capturing statistically significant change in the average skill content of jobs over much shorter periods than was possible with the metrics used in earlier decades. The broadly parallel aggregate trendlines for skill-intensity and autonomy/control suggest that these two dimensions are linked in the way Spenner suggests, even though major discrepancies appear between them in some industries and occupations.

This paper explores the merits of learning classical languages in an informal environment. It is argued that voluntary clubs offer a variety of benefits for students and teachers and may help promote the longevity of the discipline. For teachers, clubs can be a flexible way to teach Greek or Latin to the next generation in schools that may not be willing to offer one or both languages as subjects in the formal curriculum. For students, clubs can be an opportunity to learn freely and forgivingly in a relaxed and non-pressurised environment; an informal Greek club can help develop the skills of students formally learning Latin. Language clubs can also be used to make Classics more accessible into the future, as dated ideas of Classics being exclusive to only the most privileged and bright students can be disposed of. In this paper the author shall draw on her own experience as well as the experiences of students and teachers in Australia and abroad.1

This article will explore how Professor Lucy  Green’s model of informal learning, as advocated by Musical Futures, is perceived by those lying close to the phenomenon. Qualitative research was conducted and data collection involved semi-structured interviews with three key figures relating to the phenomenon. Case studies were then conducted in four English secondary schools, involving teachers and students. Data were analysed thematically. Overall key findings of the study will be presented and discussed: the phenomenon as a problem solver; adaptations and misconceptions; revolution within music education; and tensions of freedom versus authority and marketisation.

This paper outlines adult learning in the space of an important campaign against mining for coal seam gas (CSG). Recently, the government of Victoria became the first state to ban fracking for CSG in Australia. This significant legislative outcome could not have been achieved without the concerted campaigning of activists through the Lock the Gate Alliance (LTGA), in Central Gippsland. The campaign is mainly composed of circumstantial activists who have come together due to the serious threat from fracking to the quality of their land and water supply. This case study research examines adult learning in the field of a campaign. The findings from this research make clear activists learn to think critically about the environment and the impact of fracking for CSG. They learn communication skills, group work and networking skills. They develop a feel for the game of activism by learning informally through socialisation with experienced activists from the LTGA and the Environmental Non-Government Organisation Friends of the Earth (FOE). In turn, FOE resource the coalition and provide opportunities for both informal learning and nonformal learning to the protestors. Drawing on Bourdieu’s writing on practice, this paper outlines practices within the LTGA field that are influential in the knowledge and skill development of the activists.

This paper reports on a small-scale study in an elementary school in Southern Ontario, Canada. The study investigated relationships between students’ perceptions and practices of gender in popular music education with particular attention given to communication, instruments and technology and development of freedoms and constraints. The findings present a more opaque picture than previous research, suggesting that students frequently transgress binary gendered patterns of practice and perception in this particular field. Gender monoglossia and heteroglossia provide a useful explanatory framework for analysis, indicating that further application of these concepts to issues in popular music education might be most fruitful.

Innovation Concept: In Sudbury, ON 44% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients receive bystander CPR (bCPR), and only 4.7% survive cardiac arrest. The Northern City of Heroes (NCH) community initiative was launched in April 2019 with a goal of improving survival from OHCA through hands-only bCPR in the municipality. One NCH initiative is an interactive exhibit at Science North, a science centre in Sudbury that hosts 250,000 visitors annually. The exhibit employs simulation trainers for CPR, accompanying signage and interactive elements. The goals of the exhibit are to activate bCPR, change and measure behaviours through exhibit interactions on how to deliver excellent CPR, and improve survival rates in OHCA patients. Methods: Data is being collected from 3000 visitors using self-reported surveying via SurveyGizmo to assess likelihood of performing bCPR, pre and post interacting with the exhibit. Visitor behaviour will be examined at the exhibit using video-recorded interactions and coding those behaviours using BORIS software. Behavioural data will be analyzed using the Visitor Engagement Framework (VEF) where initiation, transition and breakthrough learning-behaviours are coded and an exhibit Visitor Engagement Profile (VEP) is created. The VEF and VEP are tools used in informal learning settings to assess exhibit impacts on learning. Curriculum, Tool, or Material: The use of an easily-apprehendable, hands-on exhibit tool located in a public setting, such as a science centre, creates a platform for engaging large and diverse public audiences. This type of bCPR exhibitry has not been implemented in other similar environments. The informal learning setting allows the science centre staff to engage in personalized interactions that can solidify the quality of learning and confidence in employing the new skills developed. Conclusion: The NCH exhibit and new strategies for embedding informal curriculum are powerful tools to reach diverse audiences, build knowledge and skills, and have a measurable impact on bCPR and OHCA survival rates. Data is being captured and tracked by Health Sciences North around the City of Greater Sudbury's bCPR and OHCA survival rates to monitor long-term impacts of the NCH community initiatives. Limitations of the study may be found in the focused demographics as well as the nature of self-reported learning. Future research directions include broader geographical surveying to assess improvements in community response to OHCA as a direct result of an interactive bCPR exhibitry.

While mastery of aspects of music theory is relevant to rapid learning and understanding of a new choral part, many choirs comprise members with no formal education in music theory. Also, the language of music theory is not intuitive, with many terms having meanings different from those in common use, which can present obstacles for mature learners. The authors hypothesised that students joining an internationally recognised university choir might master aspects of music theory as a by-product of rehearsals. This was tested by having new admissions to such a choir complete a music theory test at the commencement and at the end of a year. The test evaluated the ability to name and write intervals and name notes and the duration of notes. Overall results did not reject the hypothesis. Subjects with no formal music training also showed most, and statistically significant, improvement in the questions related to intervals, which are arguably the most useful skills for choristers who do not sight-read. This appears to be a new finding: the literature shows occasional references to music theory skills, but their acquisition in a learning-by-doing style is not reported. Some insights into ways of enhancing choral performance are a by-product of the principal focus of the study.

This exploratory study focuses on international students’ usage of digital tools in order to understand what role such tools play in the transition to their new academic environments and what learning opportunities they provide. Not only do digital tools accompany international students’ social, cultural, and linguistic transitions as they move to France to further their language competence, but their usage also reveals part of the social and semiotic adjustments they have to make in the process. Sixteen international students who volunteered for the study were given a smartphone application with which they could track learning opportunities by taking pictures and writing textual commentaries. The data, collected over a period of five weeks, thus include the resulting entries these participants shared in their mobile multimodal diaries with the researchers, as well as an end-of-project debriefing that was conducted to shed further light on the international students’ digital habits and their attitudes towards self-tracking. This study indicates that digital tools can play an important and pervasive role in facilitating international students’ linguistic development and their dealings with everyday life abroad. It also confirms that self-tracking apps can be instrumental in enhancing students’ awareness of learning opportunities outside the classroom.

In this study we examined the level of English proficiency children can obtain through out-of-school exposure in informal contexts prior to English classroom instruction. The second aim was to determine the input types that fuel children's informal language acquisition. Language learning was investigated in 780 Dutch-speaking children (aged 10–12), who were tested on their English receptive vocabulary knowledge, listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Information about learner characteristics and out-of-school English exposure was gathered using questionnaires. The results show large language gains for a substantial number of children but also considerable individual differences. The most beneficial types of input were gaming, use of social media and speaking. These input types are interactive and multimodal and they involve language production. We also found that the various language tests largely measure the same proficiency component.

Research into the online informal learning of English has already shown it to be a widespread phenomenon involving a range of comprehension and production activities such as viewing original version television series, listening to music on demand and social networking with other English users.

Dynamic systems theory provides a suitable framework within which to study informal learning because it emphasises the unique range of resources, strategies and relationships which contribute to non-linear language development for each learner.

While research into the impact of these activities for language development has yielded some data regarding vocabulary gains and improvements in fluency and comprehension skills, the mechanisms at work in such language development have proved difficult to study because of the private nature of most online informal learning. In this study, an emic approach is adopted, involving a group of students experienced in second language acquisition research, who used blogs to report on their own online informal learning of English over a three-month period. Extensive examples from these blogs are used to build up a picture of the learning processes at work, within a framework suggested by the literature of complex dynamic systems. These results allow conclusions to be drawn regarding the way in which these processes are used by informal learners in different phases of real communicative tasks.